fUNE,  1904  VERMEER  OF  DELFT 


PRICE,  15  CENTS 


VERMEER  OF  DELFT 


PART  54  VOLUME  5 


3ate3anD<iulldC[onipanii 
42C[(|aunc!i^tet 


MASTERS  IN  ART 

A  SERIES  OF  ILLUSTRATED 
MONOGRAPHS:    ISSUED  MONTHLY 


PART  54 


JUNE,  1904 


VOLUME  5 


fJtvmttv  of  5ielft 


CONTENTS 


Plate  I.  The  Lady  with  the  Pearl  Necklace 

Plate  II.  The  Music  Lesson 

Plate  III.  The  Coquette 

Plate  IV.  Young  Woman  Opening  a  Casement 

Plate  V.  View  of  Delft 

Plate  VI.  The  Lace-maker 

Plate  VII.  A  Girl  and  her  Lover 

Plate  VIII.  Young  Woman  Reading  a  Letter 

Plate  IX.  A  Lady  at  a  Spinet 

Plate  X.  The  Painter  in  his  Studio 

The  Life  of  Vermeer  of  Delft 
The  Art  of  Vermeer  of  Delft 


Berlin  Gallery 
Royal  Gallery,  Windsor 
Brunswick  Gallery 
Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York 
The  Hague  Gallery 
Louvre,  Paris 
Royal  Gallery,  Dresden 
Ryks  Museum,  Amsterdam 
National  Gallery,  London 
Czemin  Gallery,  Vienna 


Page 
Page 


Criticisms  by  Biirger,  Lemcke,  Bredius,  Alexandre,  Wedmore,  Van  Dyke, 
Woltmann  and  Woermann,  Peltzer  , 

The  Works  of  Vermeer  of  Delft :  Descriptions  of  the  Plates  and  a  List  of  Paintings 

Vermeer  of  Delft  Bibliography 

Half-ton*  ingravings  by  Foljom  if  Suntrgrtn  :  Boston.    Prtss-wori  by  the  Evtntt  Priti :  Buttn 


Page  36 
Page  4a 


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DUTCH  SCHOOL 


MASTEHS  IX  ABT    PLATE  II 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRAUN,  CLEMENT  A  CIE 


[21o] 


VEHMEEK  OI'  IJELKT 
THE  MUHIC  LESSON 
HOYAL  GALLPJKY,  WINUSOK 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/vermeerofdelftduOOverm 


ASTERS  IX  AKT    PLATK  TJl 

O-OIRAPH  BY  THE  BERLIN  PHOTOGRAPHIC  CO. 
[217] 


VEJKMKKH  OK  I)KT,FT 
TIIK  COQUKT'I  E 
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VK^iMKKK  OK  IJEIjKT 

MASTERS  ISr  ART    PLATE  IV  YOUNG  WOMAN  OPENING  A  CA8EMK,\ 

PHOTOGRATH  8V  CHARLES  8ALLIARD  METHOPOLITAN  MUSEUM,  NEW  TOHIi 

C219] 


MASTEHS  m  AET    PLATE  VI 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRAUN,  CLEMENT  &  CIE 
[223] 


VEHMEEH  OK  I)ET>I' 
THE  LAGE-MAKKH 
liODVKE,  l'Al{IS 


HASTEfiS  m  ART    PLATE  VII 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRAUN,  CLEMENT  &  CIE 
[225  J 


VEHMEEK  OF  J)Kr>KT 
A  GIKL  AND  iIKH  IJJVKI! 
HOXAL  GALLEKY,  DKESJJ). 


ASTEKS  IBT  ART    PLATE  VIII 
Photograph  by  braun  cLiwENx  &  cie 
[227  J 


VEKMEEK  OK  DKLKT 
TOUNG  WOMAN  KEADfNG  A  LETTER 
KYKS  MUSEUM,  AMSTERDAM 


tASTERS  IN  AHT    PLATE  IX 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  HANFSTAENGL 
[229] 


VEKMEEK  OF  DELFT 

A  JjAT)Y  at  a  spinet 

NATIONAIi  GAIiliERY,  liONDON 


MASTEES  I]sr  ART    PLATE  X 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  HANFSTAENGL 

C  231  ] 


VKKMEKH  OF  DELFT 
THE  PAINTEK  IN  HIS  STIJ 
CZEKNIN  GAIiLEKY,  VIEX 


f 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


"Ftvtnttx  of  3Btlft 

BORN  1632  :  DIED  1675 
DUTCH  SCHOOL 

"TT^EW  things  are  more  unaccountable  in  the  history  of  art,"  writes  Sir 
r  Walter  Armstrong,  "than  the  vicissitudes  which  have  attended  the  re- 
nown of  the  fascinating  painter,  Jan  Vermeer  of  Delft.  Famous  in  his  life- 
time, filling  honored  posts  in  his  native  city,  accepted  as  a  leader  by  his  fel- 
low-artists, and  as  the  maker  of  desirable  pictures  by  those  who  had  money 
in  their  pockets,  an  almost  complete  obhvion  seems  to  have  overtaken  him 
before  he  had  been  fifty  years  in  his  grave.  In  1667,  when  Vermeer  was  no 
more  than  thirty-five  years  of  age,  he  was  named  in  Dirk  van  Bleijswijck's 
elaborate  description  of  Delft  (« Beschrijving  der  Stad  Delft')  as  an  artist  who 
did  honor  to  the  city;  Arnold  de  Bon,  Bleijswijck's  editor,  celebrated  him 
in  verse  as  one  of  those  who  could  console  his  fellow-townsmen  for  the  loss 
of  the  painter  Karel  Fabritius;  and  yet  Arnold  Houbiaken,  in  that  'Great 
Theater  of  the  Netherlandish  Painters'  ('De  groote  Schouburg  der  Neer- 
landsche  Konstschilders')  published  in  1718,  in  which  he  was  kind  to  so  many 
insignificant  personalities,  passes  over  Vermeer  in  silence,  and  sets  an  exam- 
ple which  was  followed  by  every  one  who  wrote  on  Dutch  art  for  something 
like  a  century  and  a  half. 

"It  is  humiliating  to  have  to  confess  that,  in  all  probability,  the  total  neg- 
lect of  a  great  artist  was  due  to  nothing  in  the  world  but  this  omission  of 
his  name  by  Houbraken,  and  yet  Vermeer's  pictures  were  there  to  proclaim 
his  value.  Many,  no  doubt,  were  given  to  others, especially  to  Pieter  de  Hooch  ; 
but  enough  were  left  to  show  that  a  great  master  had  gone  under,  and  was 
waiting  for  some  one  with  wit  and  energy  to  pull  him  up." 

No  one  appeared,  however,  to  undertake  the  task  until  about  fifty  years 
ago,  when  E.  J.  T.  Thore,  a  celebrated  French  critic,  better  known  by  his 
pseudonym  "W.  Burger,"  struck  by  the  beauty  of  Vermeer's  pictures  and 
fascinated  by  their  seductive  charm,  constituted  himself  the  long  neglected 
painter's  champion,  and  devoted  much  time  and  study  to  the  revindication 
of  his  fame.  The  various  public  and  private  galleries  of  Europe  were  now 
searched  for  examples  of  Vermeer's  art,  and  although  Burger  sometimes 
claimed  for  his  favorite  painter  pictures  which  it  has  since  been  proved  were 

[233] 


24 


MASTERS    IN  ART 


not  his  work,  it  should  always  be  remembered  that  it  is  owing  to  this  French 
writer's  enthusiasm  and  zeal  that  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Dutch  masters 
was  rescued  from  the  oblivion  into  which  he  had  so  strangely  fallen. 

In  his  attempts  to  ascertain  facts  concerning  the  life  of  Vermeer — "the 
Sphinx,"  as  he  called  him — Burger  met  with  but  scant  success,  and  it  was 
not  until  after  his  death  that  through  the  researches  of  M.  Henry  Havard, 
who  carefully  examined  the  parish  registers  and  archives  of  the  town  of  Delft, 
as  well  as  the  record-book  of  the  painters'  Gild  of  St.  Luke,  the  meager  in- 
formation that  we  have  of  the  artist's  life  was  learned. 

Jan,  or  Johannes,  Vermeer  (pronounced  Yahn  Fair-mair)  was  born  at  Delft, 
Holland,  in  October,  1632.  His  name  is  frequently  written  "Van  der  Meer," 
of  which,  indeed,  Vermeer  is  only  a  contraction;  but  as  the  latter  is  the  form 
in  which  the  name  was  written  during  the  painter's  lifetime,  and  the  way 
in  which  he  himself  signed  it  in  the  record-book  of  the  painters'  Gild  of  St. 
Luke,  it  has  been  adopted  here.  In  whatever  way  it  be  written,  however, 
the  words  "of  Delft"  are  usually  suffixed,  in  order  to  distinguish  the  painter 
from  others  of  the  same  name — by  no  means  an  uncommon  one  in  Holland 
— from  Jan  Vermeer,  or  Van  der  Meer,  of  Utrecht,  and  from  the  two  Ver- 
meers,  or  Van  der  Meers,  of  Haarlem. 

Of  the  parentage  of  Jan  Vermeer  of  Delft  we  know  only  that  his  father, 
Reynier  Janszoon  Vermeer,  was  a  citizen  of  Delft,  belonging  to  the  bour- 
geoisie, or  middle  class;  that  his  mother  was  Dingnum  Balthasars  ("the  daugh- 
ter of  Balthasar");  that  the  house  they  lived  in  was  in  the  Vlamingstraet  of 
Delft;  and  that  his  mother  died  a  widow,  and  was  buried  in  the  Nieuwe  Kerk 
(New  Church)  of  the  town  on  February  13,  1670. 

From  whom  Jan  Vermeer  received  his  instruction  in  art  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  much  speculation.  At  the  time  of  his  probable  apprenticeship,  Delft 
was  rich  in  painters  of  more  or  less  note,  among  whom  was  one  Leonard 
Bramer,  presumably  a  relative  of  Vermeer's  and  a  somewhat  showy  artist,  who, 
M.  Henry  Havard  is  inclined  to  think,  was  Vermeer's  earliest  master,  al- 
though no  evidence  of  such  a  connection  is  to  be  traced  in  the  two  men's 
works. 

Burger's  belief  that  the  Delft  painter  at  one  period  of  his  career  studied 
under  Rembrandt,  whose  influence  he  notes  principally  in  Vermeer's  only 
dated  work,  a  painting  of  life-sized  figures,  now  in  the  Dresden  Gallery  (plate 
vii),  cannot  be  substantiated,  especially  as  there  is  no  evidence  that  Vermeer 
ever  lived  in  Amsterdam,  or  came  into  personal  contact  with  Rembrandt,  but 
every  probability,  indeed,  that  his  whole  life  was  spent  in  his  native  Delft. 

The  artist  to  whom  Vermeer  shows  himself  most  nearly  akin  is  undoubtedly 
Pieter  de  Hooch,  his  senior  by  only  two  years.  In  spite  of  some  technical 
differences  in  their  work,  there  is  sufficient  similarity  to  suggest  that  an  inti- 
mate connection  may  have  existed  between  the  two  painters  after  De  Hooch's 
establishment  in  Delft  in  1655;  and  it  has  been  thought  that  the  two  young 
artists  may  both  have  received  instruction  from  one  and  the  same  source — 
from  a  painter  of  Amsterdam  and  a  pupil  of  the  great  Rembrandt,  who  in 

[2341 


VERMEER   OP  DELFT 


25 


1652  settled  in  Delft.  This  painter,  Karel  Fabritius,  is,  indeed,  generally  re- 
garded as  the  master  of  Jan  Vermeer.  Rich,  well-born,  talented,  and  with  all 
the  prestige  which  life  in  the  great  city  of  Amsterdam,  and  intimacy  with  the 
leading  artists  of  the  ^ay  assembled  there,  gave  him,  Fabritius  quickly  acquired 
fame  in  the  city  of  his  adoption,  and  it  may  well  be  that  Jan  Vermeer  became 
a  pupil  of  so  prominent  a  painter,  or  at  any  rate  that  he  was  influenced  by 
him. 

When  in  the  year  1654  occurred  the  tragic  death  of  Karel  Fabritius,  who, 
while  painting  in  his  own  house,  was  killed  by  the  explosion  of  a  powder- 
magazine,  Jan  Vermeer,  then  twenty-two  years  of  age,  was  already  a  fully 
fledged  and  independent  artist,  inscribed  on  the  books  of  the  Gild  of  St.  Luke 
at  Delft  as  a  master.  That  he  was  at  this  time  poor  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  when  admitted  to  the  gild  he  was  obliged  to  pay  by  instalments  the  mod- 
est sum  of  six  florins  incumbent  upon  him  as  the  son  of  a  bourgeois  in  be- 
coming a  member  of  the  society;  and  that  it  was  fully  three  years  before  he 
found  himself  in  a  position  to  make  the  final  payment. 

Poverty,  however,  had  not  deterred  Vermeer  from  marrying,  and  the  same 
year  in  which  he  attained  to  the  distinction  of  membership  in  the  painters' 
gild,  that  is  in  1653,  when  only  twenty-one,  we  find  it  recorded  that  he  was 
married  to  Catharina  Bolenes,  a  young  woman  of  Delft. 

In  1662  Vermeer  was  elected  to  the  honorable  position  of  "Hooftmann," 
or  dean,  of  the  Gild  of  St.  Luke  at  Delft,  an  honor  which  was  again  con- 
ferred upon  him  in  1670.  This  fact  alone  would  prove  that  he  had  acquired 
I     a  certain  celebrity,  and  it  is  interesting  to  find  in  the  journal  of  a  French  trav- 
I     eler  and  art  lover  of  that  day,  Balthasar  de  Monconys,  further  testimony  of 
his  established  fame.  This  writer  records  that  when  visiting  Delft  in  August, 
1663,  he  saw  the  painter  Vermeer,  whose  vogue  was  then  so  great  that  he 
had  no  works  of  his  own  in  his  studio,  and  that  to  see  one  of  his  pictures 
Monsieur  de  Monconys  was  obliged  to  go  to  the  house  of  a  baker  who  pos- 
sessed a  single  figure  painted  by  Vermeer,  for  which  the  owner  had  paid  no 
less  a  sum  than  six  hundred  livres,  equivalent  to  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars, — a  large  amount  in  those  days, 
i        Vermeer's  circumstances  had  evidently  undergone  a  change,  and  his  pros- 
'     perity  is  further  shown  in  the  picture  which  he  painted  of  himself  in  his  stu- 
!     dio,  now  in  the  Czernin  Gallery,  Vienna  (plate  x).  This,  the  only  authen- 
tic representation  of  the  artist  that  exists,  shows  him  richly  attired  and 
at  work  in  a  well-appointed  room  in  no  way  suggestive  of  the  straitened 
means  which  had  necessitated  the  payment  by  instalments  of  his  fee  of  ad- 
mission to  the  Gild  of  St.  Luke,  of  which  later  he  became  one  of  the  lead- 
ing members. 

In  the  full  tide  of  his  success,  however,  we  find  Vermeer's  death  recorded 
in  the  registers  of  Delft.  Under  what  circumstances  it  occurred  is  not  related; 
we  know  only  that  it  took  place  in  December,  1675,  when  he  was  but  forty- 
three  years  of  age,  that  he  left  a  family  of  eight  children,  and  that  he  was 
buried  in  the  Oude  Kerk  (Old  Church)  of  his  native  town  of  Delft. 

[235] 


26 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


Cije  art  of  Wtxmm  of  Belft 

W.   BURGER  <GAZETTE    DES    BEAUX-ARTS'  1866 

SCHOOLS  of  painting  are,  as  a  rule,  hierarchies,  but  that  of  Holland  is, 
if  I  may  so  express  it,  a  panarchy^  for  in  that  country  each  painter  is  a 
master,  no  matter  in  what  particular  line  his  specialty  be  shown.  Van  Qs- 
tade,  Berghem,  Du  Jardin,  Paul  Potter,  Gerard  Dou,  Cuyp,  Wouverman, 
Van  de  Velde,  Ruysdael  and  Hobbema,  Ter  Borch  and  Metsu,  Pieter  de 
Hooch,  Jan  Steen,  and  a  host  of  others — all  are  finished  and  accomplished 
painters,  each  in  his  own  particular  style,  even  as  were  Rembrandt  and  Frans 
Hals.  And  in  this  galaxy  of  Dutch  masters  Jan  Vermeer  of  Delft  takes  his 
place — the  equal  of  the  best.  Like  his  fellow-artists,  he  is  by  nature  original; 
what  he  did  was  perfect  of  its  kind. 

What  sort  of  pictures  did  Vermeer  paint?  In  the  first  place,  every-day 
scenes  representing  the  manners  and  customs  of  his  time  and  of  his  coun- 
try; to  these  may  be  added  a  few  street  scenes,  painted  in  his  native  town 
of  Delft — portions  of  streets,  or  perhaps  the  outside  of  a  house;  and  finally, 
landscapes  in  which  the  air  seems  to  circulate  and  the  light  to  vibrate  as  in 
nature  itself. 

Some  score  of  Vermeer's  figure  pictures  have  come  down  to  us,  which 
may  well  be  classed  in  the  same  category  with  those  of  Metsu,  of  Ter  Borch, 
of  Jan  Steen,  and  of  Pieter  de  Hooch.  But  Vermeer  has  more  accent  than 
Metsu,  more  character  than  Ter  Borch,  more  distinction  than  Jan  Steen, 
more  originality  than  Pieter  de  Hooch.  Having  begun  by  painting  figures 
the  size  of  life,  as  in  the  *Girl  and  her  Lover'  in  the  Dresden  Gallery,  the 
small  personages  of  his  later  pictures  have  retained  a  certain  ease  in  their 
pose  and  freedom  in  the  way  in  which  they  are  rendered,  and  although  no 
larger  in  scale  than  those  of  Ter  Borch's  little  panels,  they  are  painted  with 
all  the  breadth  and  amplitude  of  Rembrandt. 

Vermeer's  salient  quality,  however,  one  that  is  even  more  striking  in  his 
work  than  is  his  feeling  for  form  and  expression,  is  his  treatment  of  light. 
In  his  paintings  the  light  is  never  artificial  but  always  normal,  always  true 
to  nature.  Entering  the  picture  from  one  side,  it  permeates  the  entire  can- 
vas, so  that  it  actually  seems  to  emanate  from  the  painting  itself,  and  the 
uninitiated  might  easily  be  deceived  into  the  belief  that  some  ray  of  the  sun 
had  penetrated  between  the  canvas  and  the  frame. 

Rembrandt's  color  is  golden  in  the  flesh-tones  and  brown  in  the  shadows; 
but  Vermeer's  lights  are  silvery  in  tone  and  his  shadows  pearl-color.  There 
is  no  absolute  darkness  in  his  pictures — no  slurring,  no  juggling.  Light  is 
everywhere,  and  even  the  chair,  table,  or  spinet  in  shadow,  stands  as  clearly 
revealed  as  if  beside  a  window.  But,  at  the  same  time,  each  object  has  its 
just  amount  of  shade,  and  its  reflections  merge  into  the  surrounding  luminous 
atmosphere.  It  is  to  this  faithful  portrayal  of  light  that  the  harmony  of  Ver- 
meer's colors  is  attributable.  In  his  pictures,  as  in  nature,  antipathic  colors, 
for  example  his  favorite  blues  and  yellows,  never  jar.   He  harmonizes  tones 

[230] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


27 


which  are  in  themselves  discordant,  passing  from  the  tenderest  minor  key  to 
the  richness  of  a  full  major  chord. 

Brilliant,  strong,  delicate,  and  varied,  at  times  surprisingly  original  and  odd, 
and  always  invested  with  a  certain  fascination  as  indefinable  as  it  is  rare,  Ver- 
meer  possesses  all  the  qualities  of  the  bold  colorist  to  whom  light  is  an  inex- 
haustible magician. —  abridged  from  the  French 

CARL   LEMCKE  <JAN    VERMEER   AUS  DELFT" 

JAN  VERMEER  OF  DELFT  was  a  painter  of  light  and  of  sunshine. 
His  chief  aim  was  to  fix  upon  his  canvas  the  fleeting  moment.  What 
Frans  Hals  had  done  in  portraiture,  painting  with  unsurpassable  skill  and 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  a  passing  expression  of  the  human  face — a  smile, 
a  laugh — that  Vermeer  as  a  landscape  and  genre  painter  delighted  to  do  in 
regard  to  light.  In  his  pictures  time  is  never  stationary — fixed  for  all  eter- 
nity, as  in  the  canvases  of  Rembrandt  or  Ruysdael — but  rather,  a  moment,  an 
instant,  gleams  and  sparkles  in  the  sunshine,  and  even  the  many  shadows, 
which  have  lost  their  sharp  outlines,  seem  by  their  delicate,  unsteady  con- 
tours to  proclaim  the  living,  moving  qualities  of  light.  Rembrandt,  as  we 
know,  painted  light  in  darkness,  causing  it  to  glow  upon  some  one  object  or 
to  bathe  another  in  its  waves;  Vermeer,  on  the  other  hand,  loved  to  paint 
darkness  against  light. 

Gifted  artist  that  he  was,  he  had  a  wholly  different  scheme  of  color  and  a 
different  manner  of  painting  for  his  interior  scenes  from  any  that  he  used  in 
his  outdoor  pictures.  For  these  last  he  liked  best  that  time  of  day  when  the 
colors  of  the  landscape,  with  its  trees,  houses,  water,  etc.,  are  strong  and  deep, 
when  each  separate  object  is  clearly  defined,  and  the  whole  scene  in  its  har- 
monious beauty  affects  us  as  does  a  full  rich  chord  of  music;  but  for  his  in- 
teriors he  preferred  that  kind  of  light  which  changes  all  the  local  colors  and 
imparts  to  his  favorite  and  often  painted  blues  and  yellows  a  peculiar  tone. 
The  room,  the  people  in  it,  and  the  furniture  as  well,  all  seem  to  vibrate,  so 
to  speak,  before  our  eyes;  the  blue  of  gown  or  chair  looks  as  if  candle-light 
would  better  suit  it — as  if,  indeed,  it  must  have  lost  some  of  its  color  in  the 
light  of  the  sun.  One  might  suppose  that  the  artist  wished  to  represent  the 
way  in  which  things  appear  to  us  when  we  look  with  blinking  eyes  from  dark- 
ness into  light.  We  question  whether  Vermeer  had  a  studio  with  pure  north 
light;  rather  does  it  seem  as  if  he  must  have  preferred  one  facing  south,  so 
that  he  might  always  have  about  him  that  magic  atmosphere  which  he  rep- 
resents. 

One  of  Vermeer's  peculiarities  is  that  he  frequently  arranges  his  genre 
pictures  in  such  a  way  that  only  half  or  three-quarters  of  his  figures  can  be 
seen.  Whole  figures,  such  as  we  see  in  *The  Coquette'  in  the  Brunswick 
Gallery,  are  exceptional.  He  generally  brings  the  figures  of  his  foregrounds 
close  to  the  outer  edge  of  the  picture,  and  introduces  the  light  through  a  win- 
dow so  that  these  figures,  or  any  objects  which  may  be  in  the  forward  part 
of  the  picture,  appear  dark,  or  at  any  rate  dim;  the  middle  distance  and  the 
background,  on  the  other  hand,  are  brightly  lighted.  We  see,  for  example, 
through  the  opening  in  the  wall  through  which  we  are  supposed  to  be  look- 

[237] 


28 


MASTERS    IN  ART 


ing,  only  the  head  and  back  of  a  man  and  the  face  and  upper  half  of  the  fig- 
ure of  a  girl,  a  corner  of  a  table,  and  a  portion  of  the  cloth;  farther  back, 
half  of  an  open  window,  and  directly  beside  it  a  light  wall.  Or,  again,  we 
see  in  the  foreground  at  the  edge  of  the  picture  close  to  the  frame,  a  table 
on  which  some  garments  have  been  thrown,  and  a  chair  entirely  in  shadow. 
The  window  is  again  close  to  the  wall  farther  back,  and  near  it,  the  light  fall- 
ing upon  her,  stands  a  lady  fastening  a  necklace  about  her  throat  as  she  looks 
into  a  httle  mirror  which  hangs  beside  the  window.  The  seat  of  the  chair 
in  the  foreground  cuts  off  her  figure  at  about  the  height  of  her  knees. 

The  fact  that  Vermeer  often  placed  the  people  or  the  furniture  of  his  fore- 
grounds immediately  in  front  of  the  spectator  prevented  his  pamting  them 
full-length,  because  of  the  many  difiRculties  that  would  be  caused  by  the  steep 
rise  and  fall  of  the  linear  perspective  of  floor  and  ceiling.  Jan  Steen  did  not 
trouble  himself  about  such  difiilculties;  not  so  Jan  Vermeer;  he  avoided  them, 
as  a  rule,  by  showing  only  a  portion  of  the  room,  and  but  little — in  some 
cases  nothing  at  all — of  either  floor  or  ceiling.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
how  he  produces  an  effect,  in  many  of  his  pictures,  with  horizontal  lines, 
against  which  only  the  vertical  lines  of  a  seated  or  a  standing  figure  are  op- 
posed. But  when  all  is  said  and  done,  whether  we  examine  more  attentively 
the  faces  and  dresses  of  his  figures  or  the  room  in  which  his  personages  are 
placed,  the  effect  of  the  whole  picture — in  a  word,  the  light,  upon  which  the 
artist  has  concentrated  his  attention  as  his  chief  aim  and  interest — always 
remains  the  principal  thing.  Vermeer  is  truly  a  master  in  his  manner  of  mod- 
eling through  the  shadows  in  the  foreground,  and  the  strongly  defined  shad- 
ows near  the  light;  a  master,  too,  in  the  way  in  which  he  gives  the  effect 
of  the  complete  and  rounded  form  of  objects  by  means  of  perspective,  at  the 
same  time  paintiMg  all  those  which  are  in  full  sunlight  somewhat  flat  both 
in  form  and  color,  and  causing  them,  as  has  been  said,  to  appear  to  vibrate 
indistinctly  before  our  eyes,  just  as  would  be  the  case  were  we  looking  from 
actual  darkness  into  light. 

Now  we  are  so  accustomed  to  exactly  the  opposite  sort  of  an  arrangement — 
to  light  in  the  foreground  or  in  the  middle  distance  of  a  picture,  and  to  dim 
light  or  darkness  in  the  background — that  pictures  of  the  kind  that  Pieter 
de  Hooch  and  Vermeer  of  Delft  painted  are  at  first  somewhat  startling.  We 
hardly  know,  indeed,  what  to  make  of  this  effect  of  waving,  flickering  light 
that  is  seen  in  so  many  of  Vermeer's  canvases,  until  we  say  to  ourselves, "That 
is,  after  ail,  just  the  way  in  which  such  a  scene  would  look  to  us,  and  the 
painter  has  dared  to  so  represent  it.'* 

As  a  colorist,  Jan  Vermeer  of  Delft  deserves  all  the  praise,  however  ex- 
travagant, which  is  accorded  him  to-day  because  of  his  extraordinary  effects. 
And,  moreover,  even  if  Gerard  Dou,  Ter  Borch,  and  others  are  now  often 
ranked  as  inferior  to  him,  there  is  nothing  to  be  said — their  strength  lay 
elsewhere  than  in  the  coloring  and  management  of  light  in  which  Vermeer 
excelled.  As  a  painter  of  light,  indeed,  he  is  unique,  and  in  its  portrayal  he 
must  ever  be  counted  among  the  greatest  masters,  always  inspiring  the  con- 
noisseur and  lover  of  art  with  wonder  and  admiration. — abridged  from 

THE  GERMAN 


[238] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


29 


A.   BREDIUS  'LES   C  H  E  F  S  -  D  '  CE  U  V  R  E   DU    MUSEE  D'AMSTERDAM' 

VERMEER  OF  DELFT  is  a  master  of  genre-painting.  He  did,  it  is 
true,  paint  landscapes — or  rather  townscapes — which  have  never  been 
surpassed,  such  as^^the  'Yiew  of  Delft'  in  the  Gallery  of  The  Hague  and 
'The  Street'  in  the  Six  Collection  at  Amsterdam,  but  these  are  exceptions 
in  his  achievement.  What  he  liked  best  were  pictures  containing  one  or  tu^o 
figures,  at  most  three.  These  figures  he  placed  in  a  room  into  which  sun- 
light streams  through  a  window,  generally  an  open  window.  As  a  rule,  the 
walls  of  the  room  are  bare,  covered  with  plaster,  and  illumined  by  an  almost 
dazzling  light.  These  bright  walls  are  the  backgrounds  for  figures  which  are 
invariably  drawn  correctly,  and  modeled  with  an  astonishing  effect  of  relief. 
To  all  this  is  added  the  charm  of  a  color-scheme  beautiful,  strong,  and  har- 
monious. 

Vermeer's  manner  of  painting  is  vigorous  and  full  of  knowledge.  The  flesh- 
tones  alone  are  sometimes  pale  and  are  treated  with  a  certain  delicacy.  They 
have,  moreover,  in  many  of  his  pictures  suffered  from  time  and  neglect.  As 
a  general  thing,  he  is  fond  of  contrasting  a  certain  shade  of  deep  indigo  blue 
with  a  light  lemon  yellow. 

The  heads  of  the  personages  in  Vermeer's  pictures  are  full  of  expression, 
very  varied,  and  exceedingly  lifeHke.  His  readers  are  all  conscientiously  read- 
ing. Absorbed  in  their  occupation,  they  seem  to  be  really  thinking  about 
what  they  are  doing.  In  a  word,  Vermeer  is,  in  his  way,  one  of  the  great- 
est painters  of  all  time.  There  is  nothing  antiquated  about  his  work,  noth- 
ing "out  of  date."  Were  his  pictures  to  be  seen  to-day  in  any  exhibition 
of  the  best  modern  work  of  a  similar  kind,  they  would  be  distinguishable 
only  because  of  their  greater  perfection. —  from  the  French 

ARSENE   ALEXANDRE  <HIST01RE   POPULAIRE   DE   LA  PEINTURE' 

NOTWITHSTANDING  marked  differences  between  the  works  of 
Vermeer  of  Delft  and  those  of  Pieter  de  Hooch,  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 
sociate the  two  painters  in  our  minds,  impossible  not  to  draw  comparisons 
between  them.  There  is  a  touch  of  raillery  in  Vermeer  which  is  lacking  in 
Pieter  de  Hooch;  he  is  colder  and  more  reserved;  he  impresses  you  more 
forcibly.  De  Hooch  is  the  painter  of  happy  and  contented  people;  Vermeer 
is  rather  the  painter  of  elegance  and  luxury — although  this  statement  should 
not  be  made  without  reservations.  The  women  of  De  Hooch's  pictures  are 
for  the  most  part  worthy  little  souls,  comfortably  off  in  this  world's  goods, 
but,  for  all  that,  most  careful  housewives.  Those  whom  Vermeer  portrays, 
on  the  other  hand,  are  pretty,  idle  creatures,  somewhat  indifferent,  slightly 
enigmatic,  very  frivolous,  and  far  more  concerned  with  their  love  affairs  than 
with  any  domestic  duties. 

Furthermore,  the  light  in  Vermeer's  canvases,  although  dazzling  and  in- 
explicable, is  not  so  warm  nor  so  bright  as  it  is  in  De  Hooch's.  His  color- 
scheme,  too,  is  noticeably  different.  Instead  of  strong  reds,  velvety  blacks, 
creamy  whites,  rich  caramel  browns,  and  golden  sunlight,  there  are  lemon 

[239] 


30 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


yellows — soft  and  yet  sharp — cold  sky-blues,  delicate  grays,  ermine  whites, 
uncompromising  ebony  blacks,  and  sunlight  more  pallid  than  De  Hooch's. 
The  vivid  notes  which  are  prominent  in  this  unusual  scale  by  no  means  re- 
fute my  statement,  but  rather  confirm  it.  Compare,  for  instance,  the  use  of 
red  in  the  little  'Lace-maker'  by  Vermeer,  in  the  Louvre,  with  the  way  in 
which  that  color  is  introduced  in  De  Hooch's  'Card-party'  in  the  same  gal- 
lery. In  the  first,  a  bit  of  scarlet  makes  the  light  seem  all  the  more  cool  and 
delicate;  in  the  last,  the  red  of  the  lady's  dress  renders  it  warmer  and  more 
abundant. 

In  the  handling  and  management  of  their  colors,  again,  there  are  dilFer- 
ences  equally  great.  Pieter  de  Hooch  lays  his  color  on  freely;  he  spreads  it 
on  his  canvas  with  a  broad,  flowing  stroke,  frankly  and  strongly;  Vermeer 
is  more  mysterious,  and,  while  carefully  guarding  the  secret  of  his  method, 
betrays  a  more  studied  way  of  working.  He  tells  you  enough  to  pique  your 
curiosity,  but  he  stops  short  just  as  you  were  about  to  discover  the  clue.  His 
painting,  indeed,  is  like  the  women  of  his  pictures.  It  smiles  upon  you  gaily, 
welcomes  you,  and  beguiles  you,  but  never  does  it  give  a  complete  and  wholly 
satisfactory  reply  to  your  questioning. 

All  these  are  salient  differences  in  the  work  of  these  two  painters,  and  yet 
we  needs  must  associate  them  in  our  thoughts.  Vermeer,  reserved  and  dis- 
tant though  he  be,  attracts  and  captivates  as  much  as  does  De  Hooch.  He 
has  his  moments  of  simplicity — -^exquisite,  indeed,  although  studied.  Man  of 
the  world  as  he  is,  he  is  yet  tender  at  times,  even  compassionate;  and  he,  too, 
is,  in  his  own  way,  a  most  ardent  lover  of  light. 

Wherever  you  may  begin  your  study  of  Vermeer,  in  whatsoever  gallery 
of  Europe  you  may  first  become  acquainted  with  his  works,  he  will  at  once 
disconcert  you  by  startling  contradictions.  If,  for  instance,  you  first  see  his 
pictures  in  Germany,  he  will  seem  to  you — that  is,  if  he  be  judged  from  his 
large  canvas  of 'A  Girl  and  her  Lover,'  in  the  Dresden  Gallery — as  almost 
the  direct  opposite  to  what  we  have  just  described;  although,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  when  his  work  as  a  whole  is  taken  into  consideration,  our  synthesis  will 
be  found  to  be  correct.  And,  indeed,  if  you  turn  from  the  Dresden  picture 
to  the  one  in  the  Berlin  Gallery,  'The  Lady  with  the  Pearl  Necklace,'  you 
will  at  once  find  the  Vermeer  of  our  description. 

Again,  if  Holland  be  the  country  where  you  begin  your  study  of  Vermeer, 
he  will  impress  you  when  you  look  at  his  'View  of  Delft,'  in  the  Gallery  of 
The  Hague,  as  a  virile  painter,  robust  and  warm.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you 
see  his  picture  in  the  Ryks  Museum,  Amsterdam,  of  the  'Young  Woman 
Reading  a  Letter,'  he  will  strike  you  as  a  strong  painter,  it  is  true,  but  a  lit- 
tle cold,  perhaps,  and  of  marked  distinction.  And  if  he  be  judged  by  others 
of  his  works  in  the  same  city — by  those  in  the  Six  Collection — you  will  find 
him  a  man  of  true  and  delicate  feeling,  a  painter  of  harmonies,  rich  and  sus- 
tained. 

Moreover,  every  one  of  these  works  reveals  a  different  technique;  unctuous 
in  the  Dresden  picture,  his  painting  is  smooth  and  satiny  in  those  of  Berlin 

[240] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


31 


and  the  Ryks  Museum,  while  in  that  of  The  Hague,  and  in  those  of  the 
Six  Collection,  Amsterdam,  it  is  grainy,  almost  rough.  But  no  matter  how 
it  varies,  it  is  always  well-nigh  impossible  to  analyze,  and  in  the  whole  of 
Vermeer's  work,  with  its  many  differences  of  feeling  and  of  treatment,  with 
its  frankness  and  its  reticence — and  all  these  extremes  are  expressed  in  an 
infinitely  small  number  of  pictures — the  same  man  is  recognizable  through- 
out, always  captivating,  always  entrancing. 

Of  the  man  himself,  however,  almost  nothing  is  known.  Out  of  the  mea- 
ger facts  that  have  been  learned  concerning  his  life,  any  romance  you  please 
might  be  woven.  But  after  all  is  said  it  comes  down  to  this,  that  Vermeer 
of  Delft  was  a  very  great  painter,  and  that  whatever  may  have  been  his  en- 
vironment, or  from  whomsoever  he  may  have  received  his  instruction  in  art 
— all  that  is  of  minor  interest  compared  with  the  way  in  which  we  see  his 
development  and  note  the  manner  in  which  his  knowledge  bore  fruit.  . 

In  Vermeer  of  Delft  we  have  a  marked  instance  of  the  slight  value  which 
men  put  upon  even  the  greatest  art  until  fashion  has  indorsed  it.  During  his 
lifetime  Vermeer  received  his  share  of  appreciation.  He  was  regarded  and 
sought  out  as  one  of  the  celebrities  of  his  native  town;  but  immediately  after 
his  death  oblivion  fell  like  a  pall  over  the  man  and  his  works.  .  .  .  These 
works,  however,  works  which  have  puzzled  critics  and  are  the  despair  of  the 
most  intrepid  artists,  are  in  themselves  great  enough  to  compensate  us  for 
our  ignorance  of  his  Hfe  and  character.  So  slight  an  effort  does  there  appear 
to  be  in  these  patiently  executed  pictures  that  it  would  seem  as  if  it  had  been 
mere  pastime  for  the  painter  to  cover,  in  the  few  of  his  works  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  an  immense  field,  ranging  as  it  does  from  the  light  and 
playful  side  of  life  to  the  serious  and  grave — from  the  frivolous  intrigues  of 
a  coquette  to  the  deep  peace  of  a  little  town  sleeping  like  a  lizard  in  the  sun. 

 ABRIDGED  FROM  THE  FRENCH 

FREDERICK    WEDMORE  <THE    MASTERS   OF   GENRE  PAINTING* 

THE  habitual  practice  of  Jan  Vermeer  of  Delft  was  of  a  wider  range 
than  that  of  Pieter  de  Hooch.  It  is  true  that,  unlike  De  Hooch,  he 
rarely  painted  stories — was  usually,  though  not  always,  content  to  place  in 
his  interiors  a  single  figure.  But  in  these  interiors,  whether  of  the  rarer  kind, 
as  where  there  are  two  figures  and  some  approach  to  a  story,  or  of  the  com- 
moner kind,  where  there  is  but  one,  and  no  story  attempted  but  the  story  of 
a  life  very  patient  in  its  daily  task — in  these  interiors  it  was  less  the  play  of 
the  pure  and  vivid  sunshine  than  of  the  milder  daylight,  under  all  conditions, 
that  concerned  and  interested  Vermeer.  He  has  never,  that  I  know,  reached 
the  gem-like  quality  of  De  Hooch's  sunshine;  but  he  is  more  preoccupied 
with  problems  not  less  difiScult — the  effect  of  light  upon  light,  of  reflected 
light  on  shadowed  space,  the  effect  of  one  thing's  luster  on  such  luster  or 
texture  as  may  happen  to  be  near  it.  This  De  Hooch  notes,  and  Nicolaes 
Maes  notes,  and  both  wonderfully,  but  neither,  perhaps,  with  quite  the  keen- 
ness, quite  the  attention,  of  Vermeer  of  Delft. 

[241] 


32 


MASTERS    IN  ART 


JOHN   C.  VAN  DYKE  'OLD   DUTCH   AND   FLEMISH  MASTERS* 

IN  subject  both  De  Hooch  and  Vermeer  occasionally  painted  townscapes; 
but  they  were  chiefly  devoted  to  the  interior,  w^ith  light  coming  in  at  the 
windows  and  illuminating  a  few  figures.  It  was  a  subject  common  to  the 
Dutch  genre-painters;  and  yet  De  Hooch  and  Vermeer  handled  it  quite  dif- 
ferently from  the  others.  They  were  more  elevated  in  feeling,  more  select 
in  types,  architecture,  surroundings,  more  brilliant  in  color,  more  transpar- 
ent in  light.  But  Vermeer  was  not  so  extensive  or  elaborate  in  composition 
as  De  Hooch,  and  possibly  could  not  handle  a  complicated  scene  so  well. 
He  seldom  painted  a  large  interior  with  groups.  A  single  figure  in  a  corner 
of  a  room,  with  a  window  and  sunlight,  was  his  usual  theme.  The  arrange- 
ment was  simpler,  but  the  mental  point  of  view  was  not  essentially  differ- 
ent from  that  of  De  Hooch.  His  concern  was  for  the  material  and  the  pic- 
turesque more  than  for  the  psychological  or  the  intellectual;  and  his  con- 
ception was  usually  summed  up  in  sunshine,  shadow,  and  color.  He  saw 
beautiful  harmonies  in  such  things,  and  he  told  of  them  with  great  vivacity 
and  spirit. 

In  the  disposition  and  adjustment  of  objects  in  his  pictures  he  made  some 
use  of  line,  and  usually  opposed  straight  lines  to  curved  ones,  as  was  the  prac- 
tice of  De  Hooch  and  others.  Deep  shadow  as  a  means  of  composition  he 
did  not  frequently  use.  He  laid  a  veil  of  light  and  shadow  like  his  con- 
temporaries; but  it  was  thinner,  less  apparent  to  the  eye,  than  with,  say,  Os- 
tade  or  Metsu.  His  light  was  clear,  and  seemed  to  have  the  intensity  of  real 
sunlight;  and,  as  a  result,  his  color  was  bright,  with  a  gay  surface  quality 
about  it.  De  Hooch  was  fond  of  golden  sunlight,  and  warm,  rich  notes  of 
red  and  yellow;  Vermeer's  tones,  if  not  opposed,  were  different.  He  was 
fond  of  all  colors,  reds  and  Naples  yellow  included,  and  he  used  them  know- 
ingly; but  he  at  first  preferred  a  silvery  tone,  and  employed  that  most  un- 
manageable of  all  cool  colors,  blue.  A  number  of  his  pictures,  indeed,  have 
something  like  a  blue  envelop  about  them — as,  for  example,  the  admirable 
little  picture  by  him  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York.  We  know 
that  Gainsborough,  as  opposed  to  Reynolds,  was  fond  of  this  hue,  but  he  used 
it  (in  his  *Blue  Boy'  and  elsewhere)  purely  for  the  sake  of  blue  as  a  color. 
In  Vermeer's  pictures  one  is  inclined  to  think  it  was  used  for  another  pur- 
pose. It  heightened  the  effect  of  light.  Vermeer  evidently  had  an  inkling  of 
what  the  modern  impressionists  have  discovered;  namely,  that  there  is  less 
luminosity  in  white  than  in  blue.  White  is  dead,  flat,  opaque;  while  blue, 
thinly  laid,  is  transparent,  vibrant,  scintillating.  There  was  certainly  no  painter 
of  the  time,  not  even  Rembrandt  with  his  sharp  contrasts,  who  gained  greater 
height  of  light  than  Vermeer;  and  something  of  it  was  due  to  his  use  of  blue. 

There  is  nothing  peculiar  or  personal  about  either  his  drawing  or  his  mod^ 
eling.  His  line  is  clear,  concise,  well  understood,  at  times  beautiful  in  its 
simplicity;  and  his  modeling  has  solidity,  strength,  and  character;  but  this 
may  be  as  truly  said  of  any  trained  painter  of  the  Dutch  school.  In  brush- 
work  he  was  decidedly  individual;  and  yet,  if  the  connection  could  be  traced, 

[242] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


33 


he  might  be  thought  in  this  respect  a  follower  of  Hals,  wide  apart  as  their 
handlings  seem  at  first  blush.  He  was  Hals  in  little.  The  same  staccato  qual- 
ity, the  same  quick  touch,  the  same  flat  modeling,  appear  in  the  only  life-sized 
work  by  Vermeer  now  in  existence — a  somewhat  repainted  group  of  figures 
at  Dresden.  In  the  small  panels  he  usually  painted,  this  handling  is  materi- 
ally modified  by  the  regard  for  size,  and  yet  a  study  of  the  picture  at  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  will  disclose  the  crisp  stroke  so  characteristic  of  Hals. 
This  kind  of  brush-work  is  peculiar  only  to  his  early  pictures.  Later  on  he 
seems  to  have  changed  his  manner  (and  something  of  his  blue  tone)  in  ac- 
cordance with  fashionable  dictation,  and  painted  a  smooth  surface  with  pale, 
varied  colors,  as  in  the  little  'Lace-maker'  of  the  Louvre  and  in  the  'Lady 
at  a  Spinet'  in  the  National  Gallery,  London. 

There  are  very  few  of  Vermeer's  pictures  left  to  us,  and  some  of  them  are 
not  altogether  good;  but  at  his  best  he  is  a  very  charming  painter,  winning 
as  the  French  Chardin,  and  just  as  frank  in  spirit.  He  is  a  poet,  but,  again, 
like  almost  all  of  the  Dutchmen,  he  is  so  only  in  the  poetry  of  materials, 
such  as  light,  color,  atmosphere,  and  values. 


ALFRED   WOLTMANN   AND    KARL   WOERMANN  'GESCHICHTE   DER  MALEREI' 

JAN  VERMEER  OF  DELFT  is  celebrated  as  a  landscape  and  genre 
painter.  His  subjects  are  of  the  utmost  simplicity  and  are  taken  direct  from 
nature.  Sometimes  he  represents  the  streets  of  Delft;  sometimes  he  shows 
us  a  room  in  one  or  another  of  the  houses  of  his  native  town,  in  which  he 
places  a  young  girl,  or,  it  may  be,  a  pair  of  lovers;  and  once  he  painted  a 
study  of  life-sized  figures. 

The  extraordinary  charm  of  Vermeer's  pictures,  that  about  them  which 
for  the  past  fifty  years  has  given  him  the  high  position  which  he  occupies 
among  Dutch  painters,  lies  wholly  in  their  marvelous  technique — in  the 
painter's  free  and  knowing  brush-work,  which  is  as  far  removed  from  any 
excessively  rough  breadth  of  stroke  as  it  is  from  too  smooth  a  finish;  and 
above  all  does  it  lie  in  his  conception  and  treatment  of  light  and  color.  In 
his  outdoor  scenes  the  light  is  strong  and  glowing,  but  in  his  interiors  Ver- 
meer understands  how  to  introduce  the  light  in  such  a  way  that  these  pictures 
are  invested  with  a  delicate  and  poetic  beauty — a  beauty  of  chiaroscuro  — 
peculiarly  his  own. 

His  paintings  of  this  description  are  distinguishable  from  those  of  Pieter  de 
Hooch,  with  which  they  have  frequently  been  confounded,  in  the  first  place 
because  of  their  greater  simplicity  in  the  arrangement  of  the  room—  in  Ver- 
meer's compositions,  for  example,  we  see  only  one  apartment,  whereas  Pieter 
de  Hooch  shows  us  several  opening  into  one  another — and  in  the  second 
place  because  of  the  color-scheme,  which,  as  a  rule,  is  very  difl^erent  from  that 
employed  by  De  Hooch.  Vermeer's  favorite  colors  are  blue — a  tender,  cool, 
moonlight  blue — and  a  pale  lemon  yellow;  these  are  sometimes  placed  in 
opposition,  and  again  are  blended  with  the  most  delicate  touch  imaginable 
into  a  perfect  harmony  of  tone.  —  from  the  German 

[243] 


34 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


ALFRED    PELTZER         *  M  A  L  W  E  I  S  E    UND    STIL   IN    DER    H  O  L  L  A  N  D  I  S  C  H  E  N  KUNST' 

THERE  is  no  spot  on  Vermeer's  canvases  devoid  of  living,  moving  light; 
no  spot  where  even  darkness  is  dull  and  lifeless.  In  every  shadow  some 
color  is  astir,  and  in  every  corner,  no  matter  how  remote,  light,  penetrating 
and  all-pervading,  is  ceaselessly  at  work  producing  color.  Delicately  and  trem- 
ulously this  light  waves  and  shimmers,  in  the  ever-changing  effect  of  the  magic 
play  of  chiaroscuro,  from  the  darkest  shadows  to  the  most  luminous  bright- 
ness. Here  we  see  light  painted  in  light,  there  darkness  in  darkness,  and 
all  things  are  united  by  imperceptible  transitions.  Reflections,  acting  and  re- 
acting, subtly  connect  a  hundred  separate  objects,  and  bring  into  harmony  all 
the  varying  shades  and  gradations  of  the  different  colors.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  no  actual  ^^sfumato^^  spread  like  a  veil  of  varnish  over  the  canvas. 
No,  Vermeer  would  have  scorned  any  such  expedient  to  obtain  a  color  effect, 
for  he  was  master  of  a  far  higher  artistic  power.  Graciously  he  allowed  the 
clear  bright  colors  to  have  free  play,  but  even  in  their  play  he  was  watchful 
to  see  that  no  discord  or  interference  should  occur,  but  that  by  the  unceas- 
ing and  interchanging  effect  of  light  all  should  be  brought  into  perfect  accord. 

Vermeer  never  attempts  to  depict  separate  masses  of  light  in  any  fixed  or 
defined  limits.  In  his  interior  scenes,  for  instance,  we  do  not  find  any  line 
of  sunbeams  bounded  by  a  window-frame  and  held  in  some  one  definite  form; 
nor  are  there  in  his  landscapes  single  rays  of  the  sun,  such  as  we  see  in  many 
of  Ruysdael's  pictures.  Light  on  his  canvases  is  diffused  overall — the  soft, 
quiet,  even,  sun-steeped  light  of  day.  Whence  it  comes  we  scarcely  ques- 
tion; enough  that  it  is  there,  and  that  it  lives  and  moves.  With  such  abso- 
lute fidelity  to  nature,  indeed,  is  it  portrayed,  that  its  course  as  it  gleams  and 
glides  back  and  forth  upon  the  picture  might  easily  be  followed,  and  we  are 
lost  in  amazement  at  the  masterly  skill  with  which  the  painter  has  represented 
this  most  subtle  of  all  the  workings  of  nature.  .  .  . 

Vermeer's  interior  scenes  show  us,  as  do  Pieter  de  Hooch's,  pictures  of 
Dutch  home  life,  but  they  are  different  in  their  arrangement  from  the  works 
of  that  painter.  He  does  not,  for  instance,  depict  any  planes  in  space — no 
vistas  are  given  from  one  room  into  others  beyond.  Depth  in  Vermeer's  pic- 
tures is  for  the  most  part  a  minor  matter,  and  consequently  that  illusion  pro- 
duced so  often  in  Pieter  de  Hooch's  scenes  by  means  of  the  perspective  fore- 
shortening of  tiled  floors,  or  of  side  walls,  does  not,  as  a  rule,  exist  in  regard 
to  his  work.  The  beams  of  the  ceiling,  if  they  show  at  all,  do  not  project 
vertically  into  the  picture,  but  lie  horizontally  before  the  spectator;  and,  in 
fact,  the  whole  disposition  of  the  room  is,  intentionally  on  the  artist's  part, 
quite  different  from  that  of  De  Hooch.  Again,  we  do  not  always  find  in  Ver- 
meer's work  those  sober  and  somewhat  severe  domestic  scenes  in  which  bare 
walls  and  straight  lines  predominate,  giving  the  idea  of  space;  but,  instead, 
we  are  often  shown  soft  materials — tapestry  carpets,  and  draperies  of  silk 
and  plush,  which  are  introduced  into  the  picture  as  curtains,  portieres,  table- 
cloths, furniture-covering,  and  garments  —  presenting  themselves  to  our  eyes 
as  masses  of  color,  and  taking  away,  or  at  any  rate  softening,  the  effect  of 
hard  lines  and  sharply  defined  forms. 

[244] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


35 


Pieter  de  Hooch  painted  from  preference  and  with  good  reason  the  peas- 
ants and  middle-class  citizens  of  Holland,  and  sometimes  the  Dutch  patri- 
cians, simple  in  their  customs  and  in  their  ways  of  living;  but  we  find  the 
master  of  Delft  quite  at  home  in  more  aristocratic  surroundings,  in  apart- 
ments more  luxurious  in  their  appointments,  as,  for  example,  in  the  picture  of 
himself  in  his  studio,  where  we  see  him  arrayed  in  silk  and  satin,  and  where  in 
the  foreground  a  wonderful  curtain  of  rich  colors  is  draped  across  the  front  of 
his  workroom.  In  his  rendering  of  different  materials  Vermeer  compares 
favorably  with  any  one  of  those  famous  Dutch  painters  renowned  for  the 
miniature-like  delicacy  of  their  touch,  but  it  is  always  by  means  of  color- 
producing  hght,  or  still  more  of  light  and  shade,  that  the  objects  in  his  pic- 
tures are  created  before  our  very  eyes  in  a  way  that  is  distinctly  his  own.  . 

Vermeer  avoids  all  sharp  outUnes,  making  them  indistinct  with  the  help 
of  a  play  of  light  and  color  at  the  edges  of  any  object  that  he  introduces  in- 
to his  pictures.  In  this  way  definite  contours  disappear,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  relation  that  each  object  bears  to  every  other  is  made  manifest  by  the 
laws  of  light.  He  paints  with  soft  liquid  colors  and  often  with  a  fine  gla- 
zing, thus  making  possible  the  most  delicate  transitions  of  light  and  shade. 
Here  and  there  he  touches  with  a  fine  brush  little  points  of  high  light,  es- 
pecially in  his  draperies  and  rough  wall-surfaces,  or  on  wood,  where  he  wishes 
to  emphasize  in  any  one  kind  of  material  numerous  tiny  particles  of  light 
and  of  form. 

He  uses  yellow  freely;  not,  however,  in  its  strongest  tones,  but  always 
in  soft,  tender  shades,  contrasting  them  with  blue,  which  may  be  called  his 
most  characteristic  color.  Ultramarine,  indeed,  and  a  certain  almost  inde- 
scribable shade  of  indigo  blue — a  "moonlight  blue,"  as  Woermann  has  fe- 
licitously called  it,  and  which  is  familiar  to  every  one  who  is  acquainted  with 
Vermeer's  pictures — are  the  foundation  tones  of  the  luminous  darkness  in 
most  of  the  master's  works.  From  these  blues  he  forms  his  shadows ;  in  their 
dusky  tones  he  dips  those  rich  draperies,  those  heavy  hangings,  and  thick 
table-covers  that  we  see  in  his  pictures.  They  form,  so  to  speak,  the  base 
of  his  whole  color-scheme,  and  in  their  various  indescribable  shadings  they 
are  peculiar  to  Vermeer  alone.  Certain  tones  of  yellow  which  he  often  com- 
bines with  them  exactly  complement  his  unusual  blues.  These  yellow  shades 
are  apparent  in  his  illuminated  surfaces,  in  the  gleaming  silken  garments  of 
his  women,  and  also  in  their  tender  flesh-tones  —  in  a  word,  they  are  to  be 
found  wherever  through  the  shadowy  realm  of  darkness  some  delicate,  trem- 
bling light  forces  itself  into  being.  .  .  . 

He  who  has  but  a  passing  acquaintance  with  the  painter  of  Delft  cannot 
have  any  truly  sympathetic  understanding  of  his  work.  His  pictures  are  so 
calm,  so  peaceful,  that  they  seem  almost  silent;  his  subjects  are  in  themselves 
so  simple  and  insignificant  that  we  scarcely  give  them  a  thought;  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  are  as  carefully  selected  and  as  full  of  expression  as  are 
the  types  of  his  figures,  those  delicate  creations  of  his  brush  invested  with  so 
exquisite  a  feeling. 

Other  artists  may  represent  dramatic  scenes,  sensual  joys,  ardent  love,  or 
the  agonies  of  death,  but  in  Vermeer's  works  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  tran- 


[245] 


35  MASTERS   IN  ART 

quil  peace,  of  calm  content  and  innocent  happiness,  and  when  we  look  long 
at  his  pictures  —  symphonies  they  might  be  called — it  seems  as  if  the  har- 
monious waves  of  color  might  in  their  vibrations  readily  dissolve  into  tones 
of  soft  and  gentle  music. — abridged  from  the  German 


C!)e  Wotk&  of  'Fermeer  of  Belft 

DESCRIPTIONS   OF   THE  PLATES 
<THE   LADY   WITH    THE   PEARL    NECKLACE'  PLATE  I 

THIS  picture,  now  in  the  Berlin  Gallery,  was  painted  in  Vermeer's  late 
period  and  is  one  of  his  most  exquisite  works.  The  subject — a  lady  stand- 
ing before  a  mirror  fastening  about  her  throat  a  necklace  of  pearls — is  of 
the  utmost  simplicity.  The  lady  is,  as  Muther  remarks,  "neither  graceful 
nor  beautiful;  neither  in  her  features  nor  in  her  expression  is  there  anything 
striking;  but  in  delicacy  of  execution  and  in  perfect  harmony  of  tone  this 
little  picture  is  a  marvel." 

Against  a  pale  gray  background  the  figure  of  the  young  woman  stands  in 
finely  modeled  relief.  She  wears  a  canary  yellow  jacket  bordered  with  ermine, 
and  a  gray  skirt.  In  her  blonde  hair  a  red  ribbon  is  tied.  On  the  table  before 
her,  which  is  partly  covered  with  the  ample  folds  of  some  blue  drapery,  are 
a  blue  Japanese  jar  and  various  small  articles  of  the  toilet.  The  chair  in  the 
foreground  is  upholstered  in  deep  garnet-colored  velvet,  and  farther  back  we 
see  a  portion  of  another  chair  covered  with  flowered  material,  brownish  olive 
in  tone.  Light  streams  through  a  window  in  the  back  part  of  the  picture, 
touching  the  folds  of  the  saff^ron-colored  curtain  hanging  beside  it,  falling  on 
the  face  and  upper  part  of  the  figure  of  the  lady,  illumining  the  wall,  and  so 
permeating  the  atmosphere  that  even  in  the  shadows  the  colors  are  blended 
in  a  wonderful  harmony.  "It  is  a  fascinating  picture,'  writes  Arsene  Alex- 
andre, "and  always  to  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  gems  of  painting." 
The  canvas  measures  nearly  two  feet  high  by  one  foot  and  a  half  wide. 


<THE  MUSIC   LESSON'  PLATE  II 

SUBJECTS  such  as  this  were  very  popular  among  the  Dutch  genre-paint- 
ers of  the  seventeenth  century,  who  repeatedly  introduced  into  their  in- 
terior scenes  persons  engaged  in  playing  upon  musical  instruments.  In  this 
picture  in  the  Royal  Gallery,  Windsor,  Vermeer  has  represented  a  portion  of 
a  room,  paved  with  marble,  and  furnished  in  simple  elegance.  A  table  cov- 
ered with  a  heavy  Persian  cloth,  such  as  he  frequently  used  among  the  ac- 
cessories of  his  pictures,  is  in  the  foreground.  Far  back  against  a  light  gray 
wall  is  a  spinet  with  inlaid  case,  and  before  it,  her  hands  upon  the  keyboard 
of  the  instrument,  stands  a  young  girl,  her  head  and  shoulders  reflected  in 

[246] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


37 


the  mirror  hanging  above.  The  gentleman  beside  her — her  music-master, 
according  to  the  title  of  the  picture — richly  dressed  in  the  fashion  of  the  day, 
listens  attentively  as  he  rests  one  arm  upon  the  spinet  and  supports  the 
other  upon  the  b^ov^  of  his  violoncello,  which  lies  upon  the  floor  near-by. 

There  is  more  story  told  in  this  picture  than  is  usual  in  Vermeer's  works; 
but,  after  all,  the  chief  interest  lies  in  the  effect  of  light  as  it  comes  through 
the  casement  windows  at  the  side,  touches  the  two  figures,  and  illumines  some 
of  the  objects  in  the  room  with  its  radiance,  leaving  others  in  soft  dusky 
shadow. 

«THE    COQUETTE'  PLATE  IH 

THE  Gallery  of  Brunswick,  Germany,  possesses  this  masterpiece  by  Ver- 
meer  of  Delft  which  Burger  has  called  *The  Coquette,'  a  name  so  ad- 
mirably suited  to  the  picture  that  it  has  been  adopted  here  rather  than  the 
more  prosaic^title  by  which  it  is  sometimes  called —  *The  Young  Girl  with 
the  Wine-glass.'  The  subject  is  unlike  the  majority  of  Vermeer's  works  and 
bears  a  resemblance  to  those  portrayed  by  Ter  Borch,  by  Metsu,  or  others  of 
the  Dutch  "Little  Masters,"  who  were  fond  of  representing  such  scenes  of 
gallantry. 

Vermeer  here  shows  us  a  richly  appointed  chamber  in  which  three  people 
are  assembled.  The  principal  figure,  the  one  upon  which  our  interest  cen- 
ters, is  that  of  the  young  girl  seated  before  us.  She  wears  a  full  skirt  of  rose- 
colored  silk,  a  bodice  of  the  same  with  elbow-sleeves  of  canary  yellow  em- 
broidered with  gold,  and  turns  her  laughing  face  towards  us,  as  she  takes  a 
glass  of  wine  from  a  gentleman.  As  he  presents  it  to  her,  he  gallantly  bows 
over  her  uplifted  hand,  under  which  he  has  placed  his  own  as  if  gently  urging 
her  to  taste  the  wine,  looking  at  her  as  he  does  so  with  an  expression  of  un- 
concealed admiration.  He  wears  a  mouse-colored  cloak,  and  broad  white  col- 
lar and  sleeve-rufiles.  In  the  shadow,  farther  back,  another  gentleman  in 
greenish  gray  embroidered  doublet,  apparently  unmindful  of  the  little  love 
passage  being  enacted  so  near  him,  is  seated  beside  a  table  covered  with  a 
deep  blue  cloth,  upon  which  are  a  silver  platter  containing  two  oranges,  a 
jug  of  bluish  porcelain,  and  a  snow-white  napkin. 

Light  enters  the  room  through  a  half-open  casement  window,  some  of  the 
leaded  panes  of  which  bear  coats  of  arms  in  stained  glass.  The  gray  wall  of 
the  background,  upon  which  hangs  a  picture  suggestive  of  a  portrait  by  Rem- 
brandt, is  partly  in  shadow  and  partly  in  full  light;  against  the  light  and  sil- 
very portion  the  head  and  upper  part  of  the  figure  of  the  young  girl  are  del- 
icately outlined,  and  the  carved  back  of  the  chair  in  which  she  sits  is  distinctly 
silhouetted. 

"I  know  of  no  more  delicious  genre  picture  in  the  whole  range  of  seven- 
teenth-century Dutch  art,"  writes  Biirger,  "than  this  one  in  the  Brunswick 
Gallery  by  Vermeer  of  Delft.  .  .  .  The  execution  is  earnest;  the  painting 
*  tight'  and  without  any  loading,  unless  it  may  be  in  some  little  spots  of  high 
light  in  the  brighter  places  and  in  the  accessories.  Not  even  Ter  Borch  ever 
painted  with  a  more  delicate  touch  or  more  exquisite  harmony  of  color." 

[247] 


38 


MASTERS    IN  ART 


<yOUNGWOMANOPENINGACASEMENT'  PLATEIV 

VERMEER'S  marked  predilection  for  blue  is  nowhere  more  strikingly 
exemplified  than  in  this  picture,  in  which  the  whole  atmosphere  seems 
permeated  with  his  favorite  hue.  The  young  woman  with  her  hand  upon 
the  frame  of  a  casement  which  she  is  in  the  act  of  opening,  wears  a  dark 
blue  skirt,  so  dark  as  to  be  almost  black  in  shadow,  a  white  bodice  bordered 
and  trimmed  with  blue,  and  a  white  kerchief  covering  her  head  and  falling 
over  her  shoulders.  Behind  a  table  with  a  variegated  Persian  cloth,  on  which 
are  a  ewer  and  basin,  brownish  yellow  in  color,  and  a  yellow  box,  stands  a 
blue  chair  with  a  cloak  of  lighter  blue  thrown  over  it.  The  wall,  on  which 
a  map  is  hanging,  is  a  neutral  gray. 

The  figure  of  the  young  woman,  admirable  in  modeling  and  pose,  the  ef- 
fect of  the  light  coming  through  the  window  on  the  left,  and  the  cool  blue 
tones  of  the  atmospheric  envelop,  luminous  even  in  shadow,  are  all  rendered 
with  that  delicacy  and  consummate  skill  peculiar  to  Vermeer  of  Delft.  The 
picture  is  indeed,  as  Sir  Walter  Armstrong  has  said,  "a  masterpiece  of  com- 
position and  chiaroscuro." 

The  canvas  measures  almost  seventeen  inches  high  by  fifteen  inches  wide. 
Formerly  in  the  possession  of  an  Irish  nobleman.  Lord  Powerscourt,  it  was 
purchased  in  1887  from  M.  Pillet,  in  Paris,  by  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Marquand, 
who  presented  it  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York,  where  it  now 
hangs. 

'VIEW   OF   DELFT'  PLATE  V 

IN  this  picture  we  have  a  remarkable  example  of  Vermeer's  skill  as  a  land- 
scapist.  The  technique  is  broad,  sure,  and  masterly;  the  impasto  solid; 
the  touch  fat  and  staccato;  and  so  thoroughly  modern  is  the  treatment  that 
the  painting  might  easily  be  mistaken  for  the  work  of  one  of  the  French  land- 
scapists  of  to-day. 

"Vermeer's  'View  of  Delft,'  "  writes  Arsene  Alexandre,  "is  a  masterpiece 
of  simplicity.  It  is  strong  without  being  brutal.  The  town  lies  before  us, 
washed  by  the  waters  of  the  Rotterdam  canal.  The  red  and  blue  roofs,  the 
houses  with  their  pointed  gables,  a  little  bridge  with  a  single  arch,  two  women 
standing  on  the  shore  in  the  foreground;  a  few  steps  beyond,  a  group  of 
people  near  a  boat — such  are  the  elements  that  make  up  this  marvelous  pic- 
ture. But  what  words  can  express  the  breadth  with  which  these  different  ob- 
jects are  rendered,  or  describe  the  perfect  stillness  of  those  gray  waters  of 
the  canal,  in  whose  calm  surface  the  reflections  of  the  city's  walls  form  great, 
vague,  greenish  silhouettes.  The  manner  in  which  this  work  is  painted  is 
impossible  to  analyze;  seemingly  simple,  it  is  yet  as  mysterious  as  art 
itself." 

"The  foreground,"  writes  Sir  Walter  Armstrong,  "is  broad  almost  to  emp- 
tiness, but  the  town  beyond  the  canal  is  built  up  with  a  hand  that  never  fal- 
ters, guided  by  an  eye  that  never  shrinks.  The  breadth  of  red  roof,  of  yel- 
low and  purple  brick,  of  green  xoliage  peeping  over  garden  walls,  the  shad- 

[248] 


VERMEER   OF  DELFT 


39 


ows  sleeping  in  the  drowsy  canals,  and  the  blinding  sunlight — playing  here 

upon  the  pinnacles  of  the  Nieuwe  Kerk,  and  there  upon  a  salient  gable  

are  set  down  with  a  combination  of  frankness  and  instinctive  selection  to 
which  the  whole  range  of  Dutch  art  scarcely  affords  a  parallel." 

The  picture,  which  is  on  canvas  and  measures  three  feet  three  inches  hi^rh 
by  nearly  four  feet  wide,  is  in  the  Gallery  of  The  Hague.  ^ 

<THE   LACE-MAKER'  PLATE  VI 

THIS  little  picture,  formerly  in  a  private  collection  in  Rotterdam,  was 
acquired  in  187  0  by  the  Louvre,  where  it  is  to-day  the  only  example 
of  the  work  of  Vermeer  of  Delft. 

The  young  girl  here  represented  is  seated  before  a  work-table  upon  which 
the  implements  of  her  trade  are  arranged.  With  eyes  intently  bent  upon  her 
cushion  with  its  long  bobbins,  and  with  fingers  deftly  managing  the  pins,  she 
seems  completely  absorbed  in  her  task  of  lace-making.  Her  light  brown  hair 
is  smoothly  brushed  and  arranged  in  curls  on  either  side.  She  wears  a  bodice 
of  lemon  yellow,  over  which  is  a  broad  lace  collar.  Touches  of  blue  and  pink 
are  on  her  cushion,  and  on  the  table  beside  her  are  a  book,  and  a  blue  pillow 
with  a  striped  border  of  red  and  white,  and  with  red  tassels. 

The  room  in  which  the  girl  sits  is  devoid  of  all  ornament;  but  the  bare, 
pearl-gray  wall  behind  her  is  brilliant  with  the  light  which  bathes  its  surface, 
which  illumines  one  side  of  her  face,  falls  upon  her  yellow  bodice,  and 
touches  her  busy  little  hands,  so  beautiful  in  their  modeling. 

The  picture  is  on  canvas  and  measures  only  about  nine  inches  high  by 
eight  inches  wide. 

<A    GIRL   AND    HER   LOVER'  PLATE  VII 

THIS  picture  in  the  Dresden  Gallery  bears  the  date  1656,  and  is,  there- 
fore, an  early  work  of  Vermeer's,  having  been  painted  when  he  was 
but  twenty-four  years  old.  The  figures  are  life-sized;  the  general  tone  is 
warmer  and  the  brush-work  broader  and  less  finished  than  in  his  later  works. 
In  color,  too,  the  painting  is  less  delicate.  The  lemon  yellow  of  the  girl's 
jacket  and  the  white  of  her  cap  stand  out  in  bold  relief  against  the  fiery  red 
of  the  coat  of  her  lover  who  is  behind  her,  his  face  shadowed  by  a  large  gray 
felt  hat  trimmed  with  green  and  yellow  feathers.  The  older  woman  in  the 
background  is  in  black,  as  is  also  the  young  man  at  the  left  of  the  picture, 
holding  a  glass  of  wine  in  one  hand  and  a  guitar  in  the  other.  A  black  cloak 
is  thrown  over  the  balcony  behind  which  these  figures  are  placed,  and  which 
is  covered  with  the  heavy  folds  of  a  Persian  carpet  patterned  in  red  and  yel- 
low on  a  gray  ground.  Standing  at  one  corner  of  this  balcony,  at  the  extreme 
right,  is  a  stone  jug  with  blue  designs,  forming  a  contrast  to  the  rich  colored 
wine  in  the  glass  next  it  which  the  girl  holds  in  her  hand. 

That  this  picture,  which  Burger  considers  "in  composition,  in  character, 
in  drawing,  and  in  color  wholly  Rembrandtesque,"  is  strikingly  unlike  Ver- 
meer's later  conversation  pieces,  is  clear  at  a  glance.  Strong  and  vigorous  it 

[249] 


40 


MASTERS    IN  ART 


certainly  is,  supple  in  technique,  and  harmonious  in  its  color-scheme;  but 
those  exquisite  effects  of  light,  that  exceeding  delicacy  of  touch,  that  inde- 
scribably subtle  blending  of  colors,  characteristic  of  Vermeer's  more  mature 
works,  are  not  apparent  here.  It  has  often  been  called  the  artist's  master- 
piece; may  it  not  rather  be  regarded,  as  a  recent  critic,  Dr.  Alfred  Peltzer, 
has  suggested,  as  the  bold  and  somewhat  extravagant  work  of  an  exception- 
ally gifted  young  artist,  who  painted  this  masterly  study  of  hfe-sized  figures 
in  all  the  exuberance  of  his  as  yet  not  wholly-developed  talent? 

The  picture  is  on  canvas  and  measures  four  feet  eight  inches  high  by  four 
feet  three  inches  wide. 

<YOUNG   WOMAN    READING   A   LETTER'  '  PLATE  VIII 

IN  this  picture  in  the  Ryks  M-useum,  Amsterdam,  Vermeer  has  painted  one 
of  his  characteristically  simple  subjects.  A  young  woman  seen  in  profile, 
and  wearing  a  loose  sack  of  light  blue  silk  and  a  greenish  gray  skirt,  is  ab- 
sorbed in  reading  a  letter  as  she  stands  before  a  table  covered  with  blue  dra- 
pery. Two  chairs  and  a  large  map  hanging  on  a  sunlit  wall  complete  the 
scene. 

Time  has  greatly  injured  the  painting,  which  has  suffered  also  from  over- 
cleaning,  but  its  cool,  tender  tone  of  coloring,  the  peculiar  bluish  atmos- 
pheric effect,  and  the  wonderful  lighting  of  the  canvas  entitle  it  to  a  high 
place  among  Vermeer's  works.  It  measures  a  little  over  one  foot  and  a  half 
high  by  one  foot  three  inches  wide. 

<ALADY   AT   A    SPINET'  PLATE  IX 

THIS  picture  in  the  National  Gallery,  London,  offers  an  excellent  ex- 
ample of  Vermeer's  skill  in  the  treatment  of  light.  A  cool  general  effect 
peculiar  to  this  artist  pervades  the  scene,  and  in  the  smooth  surface  and  pale 
colors  we  recognize  a  work  of  his  middle  period.  The  room  is  paved  with 
squares  of  black  and  white  marble;  the  wall,  suffused  with  light  from  with- 
out, is  of  a  delicate  pearly  gray ;  the  spinet  is  brown,  and  the  lady  standing  be- 
fore it,  her  hands  upon  the  keyboard,  wears  a  skirt  of  gleaming  grayish  white 
satin  with  a  bodice  of  rich  blue  silk.  In  the  foreground  is  a  chair  covered 
with  blue  velvet,  and  on  the  wall  hang  two  pict!;res,  of  which  the  smaller 
one,  the  landscape,  is  framed  in  sparkling  gold,  while  the  black  frame  of  the 
other  picture,  which  represents  a  cupid  holding  in  his  uplifted  hand  a  clock, 
forms  the  strongest  note  of  color  in  the  scene. 

Unfortunately  the  picture  has  suffered  in  parts  from  over-cleaning,  and  the 
gray  under-painting  thus  revealed  gives  it  a  colder  appearance  than  it  orig- 
inally had.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  it  possesses  great  charm  of  light  and 
of  color,  and,  as  Mr.  Timothy  Cole  has  said,  "The  varied  adjustment  of  the 
spaces  in  the  arrangement  of  the  whole  is  a  study  in  itself." 

The  picture  is  on  canvas  and  measures  one  foot  eight  inches  high  by  one 
foot  and  a  half  wide. 


[250] 


VERMEER   OF   DELFT  41 

<THE   PAINTER   IN    HIS   STUDIO'  PLATE  X 

THE  only  authentic  representation  of  Vermeer  of  Delft  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  a  portrait  of  the  artist  that  exists—has  come  down  to  us  in 
this  picture,  now  in  the  Czernin  Gallery,  Vienna. 

The  painter,  dressed  in  a  black  doublet  slashed  with  white,  black  velvet 
breeches,  red  stockings  over  which  are  pulled  a  pair  of  loosely  fitting  white 
ones,  and  with  a  black  cap  partly  covering  his  long  brown  hair,  is  here  shown 
seated  at  an  easel,  mahlstick  in  hand,  engaged  in  representing  on  his  canvas  the 
figure  of  a  young  girl  posing  before  him.  She  is  dressed  in  a  pale  blue  mantle 
and  a  gray  skirt  edged  with  black.  In  one  hand  she  holds  a  book  bound  in  yel- 
low, and  in  the  other  a  long  brass  trumpet,  while  on  her  head  is  a  wreath  of 
laurel-leaves.  A  map,  brownish  yellow  in  tone,  hangs  on  the  light  wall  behind 
her;  beneath  this,  at  one  side,  is  a  chair  covered  with  garnet-colored  velvet, 
and  in  the  left  foreground  is  a  table,  upon  which  are  a  plaster  cast,  some  draw- 
ings, and  pieces  of  richly  colored  drapery. 

Waagen  says  of  this  picture,  "In  the  beautiful  harmony  of  its  colors,  the 
mellowness  of  its  tone,  and  the  breadth  of  handling  which  it  reveals,  we  have 
one  of  the  finest  works  of  Vermeer's  maturity."  Sir  Walter  Armstrong  feels, 
however,  that  it  lacks  the  charm  of  many  of  Vermeer's  earlier  and  simpler 
compositions.  "The  passionate  sincerity  which  is  their  characteristic,"  he 
says,  "here  gives  place  to  delight  in  skill.  All  sorts  of  technical  difficulties  are 
met  and  overcome,  but  one  cannot  look  at  the  picture  without  feeling  that 
as  Vermeer's  skill  grew  his  passion  cooled — that  his  sense  of  what  things 
were  was  overborne  by  his  interest  in  how  they  looked;  in  a  word,  that  he 
rendered  rather  than  created.  .  .  .  But  after  all  is  said,  the  Czernin  picture 
remains  a  great  work." 

This  painting,  which  is  in  a  state  of  excellent  preservation,  was  formerly 
attributed  to  Pieter  de  Hooch.  It  was  Biirger  who  restored  it  to  its  rightful 
owner,  whose  signature  he  discovered  in  the  lower  part  of  the  map. 


A   LIST   OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   PAINTINGS    BY   VERMEER   OF    DELFT  WITH  THEIR 

PRESENT  LOCATIONS 

AUSTRIA.  Vienna,  Czernin  Gallery:  The  Painter  in  his  Studio  (Plate  x)  —  BEL- 
xX  GIUM.  Brussels,  Arenberg  Palace:  Portrait  of  a  Young  Woman  —  ENG- 
LAND. London,  National  Gallery:  A  Lady  at  a  Spinet  (Plate  ix)  —  London, 
Owned  by  C.  H.  Bischoffsheim,  Esq  :  Girl  playing  on  a  Guitar —  London,  Owned  by 
S.  Joseph,  Esq:  The  Soldier  and  the  Laughing  Girl  —  Windsor,  Royal  Gallery:  The 
Music  Lesson  (Plate  ii)  —  FRANCE.  Paris,  Louvre:  The  Lace-maker  (Plate  vi)  — 
Paris,  Owned  by  M.  Rudolph  Kann:  The  Sleeping  Girl  —  GERMANY.  Berlin 
Gallery:  The  Lady  with  the  Pearl  Necklace  (Plate  i) — Brunswick  Gallery:  The 
Coquette  (Plate  iii) — Dresden,  Royal  Gallery:  A  Girl  and  her  Lover  (Plate  vii); 
Young  Woman  reading  a  Letter  —  Frankfort,  Stadel  Institute:  The  Geographer  — 
HOLLAND.  Amsterdam,  Ryks  Museum:  Young  Woman  reading  a  Letter  (Plate  viii) 

—  Amsterdam,  Six  Collection:  The  Milkmaid;  The  Street  —  Amsterdam,  Owned 
BY  Mr.  J.  F.  van  Lennep:  Interior  —  The  Hague  Gallery:  View  of  Delft  (Plate  v)  — 
UNITED  STATES.  Boston,  Collection  of  Mrs.  John  L.  Gardner:  The  Concert 

—  New  York,  Metropolitan  Museum  :  Young  Woman  opening  a  Casement  (Plate  iv). 

[251] 


42 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


"gTermeer  of  Belft  3Stt)Uograpi)p 

A    LIST    OF    THE    PRINCIPAL    BOOKS   AND    MAGAZINE  ARTICLES 
DEALING    WITH    VERMEER    OF  DELFT 

THE  chief  sources  of  information  concerning  Vermeer  of  Delft  are  W.  Burger's 
'Musees  de  la  Hollande'  (Paris,  1858-60)5  an  article  in  three  parts* by  the  same 
writer  in  the  'Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts'  for  1866,  and  a  short  monograph  by  Henry 
Havard  entitled  'Van  der  Meer  de  Delft'  (Paris,  1888),  which,  in  the  light  of  more  recent 
discoveries  regarding  the  painter,  supplements  or  corrects  many  of  Burger's  statements. 

ALEXANDRE,  A.  Histoire  populaire  de  la  peinture:  ecoles  flammande  et  hollandaise. 
xA.  Paris  [1894]  —  Blanc,  C.  Histpire  des  peintres  de  toutes  les  ecoles:  ecole  hollandaise. 
Paris,  1863 — Bleijsvvijck,  D.  van.  Beschrijving  der  Stad  Delft,  Delft,  1667-68  — 
Bredius,  a.  Les  Chefs  d'oeuvres  du  Musee  Royal  d' Amsterdam.  Munich  [1890]  — 
Bredius,  a.,  and  Moes,  E.  W.  Oud  Holland.  Amsterdam,  1883-97 — Biirger,  W. 
Musees  de  la  Hollande.  Paris,  1858-60  —  Gower,  R.  The  Figure  Painters  of  Holland. 
London,  1880  —  Havard,  H.  Van  der  Meer  de  Delft.  Paris  [i 888]  —  Kramm,  C. 
De  levens  en  werken  de  hollandsche  en  vlaamsche  Kunstschilders.  Amsterdam,  1861  — 
Kugler,  F.  T.  Handbook  of  Painting;  the  German,  Flemish,  and  Dutch  Schools.  Re- 
vised by  J.  A.  Crowe.  London,  1874  —  Lemcke,  Carl.  Jan  Vermeer  aus  Delft  (in 
Dohme's  '  Kunst  und  Kiinstler,'  etc.).  Leipsic,  1878  —  Peltzep,  A.  liber  Malweise 
und  Stil  in  der  hollandischen  K.unst.  Heidelberg,  1903 — Philippi,  K.  Die  Bliite  der 
Malerei  in  Holland.  Leipsic,  1901 — Van  Dyke,  J.  C.  Old  Dutch  and  Flemish  Masters. 
New  York,  1895  —  Wedmore,  F.  Masters  of  Genre  Painting.  London,  1880  —  Wolt- 
MANN,  A.,  and  Woermann,  K.  Geschichte  der  Malerei.  Leipsic,  1887-88  — Wyzewa, 
T.  de.   Les  Grands  peintres  des  Flandres  et  de  la  Hollande.    Paris,  1890. 

MAGAZINE  articles 

ATHEN^UM,  1 901:  The  Newly  Discovered  Vermeer  —  Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts, 
J\i^6^:  W.  Burger;  Galerie  Pereire.  1866:  W.  Burger;  Van  der  Meer  de  Delft. 
1883:  H.  Havard;  Johannes  Vermeer  —  Kunstkronijk,  Vol.  29:  E.  J.  T.  Thore;  Eene 
studie  over  den  Delftschen  Vermeer — Portfolio,  1891:  W.  Armstrong;  Johannes  Ver- 
meer of  Delft  —  Zeitschrift  fur  bildende  Kunst,  1868:  W.  Burger;  Meisterwerke 
der  Braunschweiger  Galerie:  Das  Madchen  mit  dem  Weinglase.  1883  (Beiblatt):  A.  Bre- 
dius; Ein  Pseudo-Vermeer  in  der  Berliner  Galerie. 


[252] 


MASTERS  IN  ART 


Masters  in  Art 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


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picture-Xigbting 

Is  in  Itself  an  Art. 


Fine  paintings  are  often  spoiled  by  ineffective 
or  poor  lighting. 


€f)e  famous  f rinft  M^p^tcm 

is  being  used  in  a  large  number  of  the  finest 
galleries  in  the  country,  and  by  a  great  many 
prominent  collectors.  Covers  the  pictures  with 
a  strong,  even  light ;  no  glare  in  the  eyes,  or 
spots  on  the  picture  space. 

9ln  fatal  Higftt. 

We  have  made  a  special  study  of  picture-light- 
ing, and  are  prepared  to  give  you  the  best  re- 
sults attainable.  Galleries,  individual  collections 
or  paintings  succes  fully  lighted.  Investigat'on 
invited. 


I.  P.  PRINK, 
551  Pearl  Street,  New  York  City. 


a  partial  list  of  the  artists  to  be  considered  in  '  Masters  in  Art' 
during  the  forthcoming,  1904,  Volume  will  be  found  on  another 
page  of  this  issue.  The  numbers  which  have  already  appeared 
in  1904  are  : 

Part  49,  JANUARY       .       .   ,    FRA  BARTOLOMMEO 

Part  50,  FEBRUARY  GREUZE 

Part  51,  MARCH     .  .    DURER\S  ENGRAVINGS 

Part  52,  APRIL  LOTTO 

Part  SJ,  MAY  LANDSEER 

PART    55,    THE    ISSUE  FOR 

WILL  TREAT  OF 


VOL. 


VOL.  2. 


Part  i 
Part  2 
Part  3 
Part  4 
Part  5 
Part  6 
Part  7 
Part  8 
Part  9, 
Part  10, 
Part  ii 
Part  12, 


VAN  DYCK 
-TITIAN 
-VELASQUEZ 
-HOLBEIN 
-BOTTICELLI 
-REMBRANDT 
-REYNOLDS 
-MILLET 
-GIO.  BELLINI 
-MURILLO 
-HALS 
-RAPHAEL 

*  Sculpture 


Part  ij 
Part  14. 
Part  15. 
Part  16 
Part  17. 
Part  18. 
Part  19 
Part  20. 
Part  21 
Part  22 
Part  23. 
Part  24 


RUBENS 
—DA  VINCI 
DURER 

MICHELANGELO* 
— MICHELANGELOt 

COROT 
.— BURNE-JONES 
— TER  BORCH 
— DELLA  ROBBIA 
—DEL  SARTO 

GAINSBOROUGH 
— CORREGGIO 
ling 


VOL.  3. 

Part  25.— PHIDIAS  Part  31.— PAUL  POTTER 

Part  26.— PERUGINO  Part  32.— GIOTTO 

Part  27.  — HOLBEIN  §  Part  33.— PR AXITELES 

Part  28.— TINTORETTO         Part  34.— HOGARTH 
Part  29.— PIETER  de  HOOCH  Part  35.— TURNER 
Part  30.— NATTIER  Part  36.— LUINI 

§  Drawings 


VOL.  4. 


Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 
Part 


37,  JANUARY 

38,  FEBRUARY 

39,  MARCH 

40,  APRIL  . 

41,  MAY 

42,  JUNE 

43,  JULY 

44,  AUGUST 

45,  SEPTEMBER 

46,  OCTOBER 

47,  NOVEMBER 

48,  DECEMBER 


ROMNEY 
.    FRA  ANGELICO 
.  WATTEAU 
RAPHAEL'S  FRESCOS 
DONATELLO 
GERARD  DOU 
CARPACCIO 
ROSA  BONHEUR 
GUIDO  RFNI 
PUVIS  DE  CHAVANNES 
GIORGIONK 
.  ROSSETTI 


%\\  tf)e  abobe  nameD  i^^xt^ 
are  con^tautlp  hcpt  in  ^tocft 

PRICES  ON  AND  AFTER  JANUARY  1,1904 

SINGLE  NUMBERS  OF  BACK  VOLUMES,  20  CENTS 
EACH.  SINGLE  NUMBERS  OF  THE  CURRENT  1904 
VOLUME,  15  CENTS  EACH.  BOUND  VOLUMES  1,2,3, 
AND  4,  CONTAINING  THE  PARTS  LISTED  ABOVE, 
BOUND  IN  BROWN  BUCKRAM,  WITH  GILT  STAMPS 
AND  GILT  TOP,  ?3.7r>  EACH;  IN  GREEN  HALF- 
MOROCCO,  GILT  STA.MPS  AND  GILT  TOP,  $4. -'5 
EACH.   


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out  of  New  England,  running  through  the  Picturesque  Berkshire  Hills,  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  via 
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In  eight  parts,  12x16  inches     Complete  in  portfolio,  $y.00  net    Separate  pMrts,  $l.00  net,  each 

A  series  of  Monographs  by  eminent  authorities  on  various  branches  of  Modem  Art,  illustrated  by  48 
full-page  plates  in  colour  and  otherwise 

Part  I 
Part  II 
Part  III 
Part  IV 
Part  V 
Part  VI 
Part  VII 


The  Modern  Aspect  of  Wood  Engraving:  By  Charles  Hiatt 

The  Modern  Aspect  of  Artistic  Lithography  By  Joseph  Pennell 

The  Future  Development  of  Oil  Painting:  By  Percy  Bate 
The  Development  and  Practice  of  English  Water-Colour  By  Walter  s.  Sparrow 

Etching  and  Dry  Point  By  Dr.  Hans  W.  Singer 

Pastels  By  A.  L.  Baldry 

The  Art  and  Practice  of  Monotyping  in  Colour  By  Alfred  East,  A.R.  a. 


Part  VIII  The  Pencil  and  Pen  as  Instruments  of  Art 


By  Charles  Holme 


^•^OPINIONS   OF   THE   C  R  I  T  I  C  S 

The  Niw  York  Tribune:  **  The  reproductions  are  extraordinarily  good.  They  are  throughout  adequate,  giving 
perfectly  the  simpler  textures  of  the  early  men  and  the  far  more  brilliant  qualities  of  work  like  that  of  Mr.  Swan.  Indeed, 
the  reproduction  of  the  latter' s  *Jaguar  and  Macaw'  is  one  of  the  best  plates  of  the  sort  we  have  ever  seen.  The  publish- 
ers have  set  out  to  secure  something  like  facsimiles  of  the  work  selected  for  illustration,  and  they  have  been  remarkably 
successful  in  their  aim.  It  is  a  handsome  publication,  and  the  price  is  a  modest  one.  The  collection  as  a  whole  promises 
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The  Review  of  Reviews:  "  purchasers  of  this  interesting  work  obtain  not  only  a  choice  collection  of  pictures,  but  also 
an  important  essay  in  each  part  on  some  phaie  of  modern  art,  written  by  an  acknowledged  authority." 

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The 

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PIANOS 


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GRAND 


It  is  a  perfect  Grand  piano 
with  the  sweetness  and  qual- 
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is  a  more  artistic  piece  of  furniture  than  an 
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ways and  spaces  smaller  than  will  admit 


even  the  small  Upright 

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